Backup Runs Out Of Space
I am totally frustrated with this product. No matter how I set up a task, when I tell Acronis to only keep ONE backup copy it never does that. It continues to write backups until it runs out of space and then doesn't even tell me it ran out of space. It just stops doing the backups. I have read the manual to no avail. Can anyone tell me, step by step, exactly what I should be doing so that I do one of these two things:
1. Do a full followed by differentials, for 7 days, then a new full and differentials, and when the third series is about to start delete the first series before. I have tried this and it never works and always runs out of space.
2. Do a full backup, then a second full, and before starting the third and subsequent backups delete the earliest one. I have tried this too and it never works and always runs out of space.
Right now my solution is to delete a backup EVERY DAY in the morning when I start up so there will be enough space later in the day when Acronis kicks off.
I'd appreciate any help.
Pat, it didn't work. I told it to just save one backup. So tonight it did the normal backup but DID NOT delete yesterdays'. That means that tomorrow it will fail on a no spce issue, it won't do the backup, and it won't tell me and I'll lose my backup security. Then I'll have to delete yesterday's backup and wait for it to then run the normal evening backup, but it still then won't delete today's backup.
Is there no one in Acronis I can address this with without paying them money? Seems to me this is a flaw in the program. Once again this is so frustrating to work with.
And, on top of that, even though I have the box checked to notify me when new comments are posted, I am not being notified. I just went out to check this thread and found yours. What's up with that?
Michael,
In general with ATI, it is better to create a new task than editing the settings of an existing task. At this point, I would do a full backup, and move it to another directory.
Then, delete your current task. ATI will complain because you moved the TIB file. Insist.
Create a new task, set it up to do incremental backups, doing a new full after 1 incremental before a new full, and set the auto cleaning options to keeping only 1 most recent chain.
Test this task. Importantly, let the scheduler run the tasks. Weirdly, the counting gets off if you intersperse manual backups with automated backups.
If this task works, you can increase the number of incrementals to maybe 6, so that you have a new full every week or so.
OK, I deleted the task, though it wasn't intuitive and then when I tried to set up a new task it kept insisting I didn't have enough room on the drive even though I had deleted all the backups. Apparently it just remembered I had no room and refused to recheck it.
It never complained about removing the task.
By the way, the interface to the task list is just terrible, I do lots of manual backups, one to a USB drive at month end which I store off site and another at month end, also USB, which I store in a safe here. My task list is crammed with every backup that I make. I just wish they'd have a simple one line list of scheduled backups as opposed to my one timers.
But, I created a new task. The annoying thing is that it insisted I do an immediate backup instead of waiting until 6:30PM tonight or it wouldn't save the task. So I did it. My guess is it won't run tonight because it will think it already did one today, but we'll see. I set it to only keep one version and to do automatic cleanup.
You can remove all the TIB files (not delete!) from the backup list that are not attached to an active task. This will clear up your backup list. You will still be able to restore them!
When I reinstall, cleanup, reinstall, I move the TIB files I want to keep to a hidden folder (the TIB files are not hidden in the folder) before that. That way ATI doesn't relist all of them individually (this is an annoying feature to me).
When I want to change anything except the schedule of a task, I know I have to delete it and set a new task. I always move the TIB files I want to keep to a hidden folder, then delete the task. ATI complains the TIBs are missing, I insist, ATI crashes, I restart it, I create a new task. Is this a great process? no. But it works.
Well, it looks like it's working. Yesterday I verified that the immediate backup request when I set up the new task worked. I could see the backup in the My Backups folder. This morning I checked the folder and all it had in it was a 6:30 pm backup. So it deleted the daytime backup and replaced it with the evening one. So I'm a happy camper. Thanks for all the advice.